Chapter 27
I opened my eyes in the mindscape to see Damien waiting for me. Order was seemingly being restored to at least the central area. The buildings were no longer covered in strange plants, and a sturdy compound was being constructed around me. Smooth gray stones formed buildings and walls, blocking this area from the horrors of the rest of my mindscape.
Several denizens moved around, and though they were more militaristic in nature, part of me recognized this is what the hamlets scattered throughout my mindscape used to be like. Each of the denizens could represent numerous different things. Everything from a memory, to reflections of my subconscious. Like me, none of them could truly be killed, but I guess things were likely different with how my mindscape had been warped by time.
Good to see you, Damien greeted.
Any progress? I asked. Wheres Ilore?
She is working with the emotion we captured, Damien explained. She said shes making progress but it is a slow thing.
Where are they now? I asked.
This way. Damien walked away and I followed after him.
He led me to a set of stairs attached to a larger building. On the second floor, we found Ilore sitting beside the emotion of love avatar. Chains of magical energy, imbued with the gray color of Ilores time magic, were wrapped around the avatar. Both of their eyes were closed.
Ilore was unraveling the emotion, slowly restoring it to what it once had been.
Its best not to disturb them, Damien said quietly, gesturing for us to step out. I just wanted you to see.
We left the building and Damien showed me around the compound. Many denizens manned the surrounding thick wall of gray stone, wielding bows and spears. Outside the walls, a clearing had been formed, creating an open firing field for the archers. In the distance, beyond this central island, the foliage gave way to the void.
This seems very secure, I noted to Damien. Good work.
As Ilore has been focused on the emotion Ive been focusing my energies on defense. There are also spells I worked in that will summon undead minions to defend the walls. Any enemies that fall will soon rise to serve us, at least temporarily.
We have a plan for how to go about reasserting control over the rest of my mindscape? I asked.
Yes. In fact, well eventually rebuild to fully reconnect with the rest the world. Damien nodded. As I was building this compound, I received a message from Altor stating that were starting to make noticeable progress in repairing your mindscape, and that when completed, the barrier would be lowered and the connection reestablished.
A notification appeared in my vision stating pretty much what he said. It was a percentage counter showing different marks at twenty-five percent, fifty percent, seventy-five percent, and one hundred percent completion. I blinked through the notification, and instead of disappearing, the progress tracker moved into the top corner of my vision. It showed us at barely over one percent. We have a lot of work to do.
I think we should get this main island fully secured first, I said. How do we do that, just clear out all of the monsters and chaos around us?
That is the most straightforward way to do it, Damien agreed.
A smaller floating island crested over the edge of the main island, and an idea came to me. Damien, you think we could control the flight path of one of the islands?
Damien saw where I was looking and nodded thoughtfully. I dont see why not. Though Im hesitant to try on some of the larger ones. It would require too much energy. But one that size or smaller should be doable. What are you thinking?
Its simple, I began to explain. What if instead of focusing on clearing out the islands one at a time, we turned one of the smaller islands into a bastion. We could mount powerful magical cannons and weapons on it to fight off creatures and clear islands from the air.
I like that idea. Though we will still need to land on them, and it would be best if not all of our efforts are destructive. We could work with Ilore to create a time magic that might help to stabilize the islands, utilizing the floating island as a platform for moving that effect around.
Thats a good plan. I had been worried about causing extensive damage to my mindscape. The hope was that we could restore the balance without everything being ripped apart in the process. Bombarding every island that showed resistance seem like a good way to do permanent damage.
Im sure we could also use the island as a platform for raising undead on places were trying to clear, Damien said. They would be less damaging than bombardment spells.
Lets do that, but first we need to see if the idea is even feasible.
Damien and I flew up to the island. It was around twenty to thirty meters in diameter, and only ten thick. At first it seemed barren, but when we got closer, a few small creatures were visible, along with stubborn plants clinging to life.
The moment we touched down, the small creatures turned hostile, but they were no threat to us. The small demon-like rats threw themselves at us, and between Damiens magic and my skill with the blade-staff, we quickly cut them all down. After thoroughly exploring the island, making sure there were no hidden surprises, Damien looked pleased.
I definitely think we can make this work, Damien said. You can feel it moving near the edges, so creating something to make it move as we want it to should be easy.
Well, lets get it anchored to the island below so it doesnt float away while were working on it.
***
Several days later, I reentered my mindscape. Id been spending a lot of time in here as of late working with Damien and Ilore in preparing the island. Damien didnt greet me where I spawned. He was probably up on our tethered island. I flew up to it, following the heavy chain that anchored it to the main island.
Construction in the mindscape was a fast thing, and already things were looking radically different. We reshaped it on one side and mounted large spell diagrams facing away from the designated front to act like thrusters when fed mana. We also installed several other smaller diagrams of the same nature around its circumference to provide breaking and steering capabilities.
The top of the island was now covered in fortifications and stone buildings that provided housing for the troops that would be residing here.
Damien was floating below the island working on a construct.
Is that one of the main cannons? I asked as I approached him.
It is, Damien said. Once operational, all well need is to feed mana into it. Getting it to work how you wanted was tricky, but I think I got it.
Good, I said happily. Id asked Damien if he could make cannons that would launch projectiles to both kill things and raise any nearby corpses to fight on our side. It was something I remember seeing Lox do with his ship. Id been worried that we would need magical cores to fire the cannons, but Damien assured me that since we were in the mindscape some of the rules could be bent.
Fortunately, once we get this first cannon figured out, the others should come quickly, Damien explained. Ilore is taking a break from working on the emotion avatar and is working on a cannon of her own. From what I understand, its a kind of stasis cannon that we can use to target more powerful monsters that resist these cannons.
That sounds useful, I said. Where is she?
Up above, Damien gestured. Its going to be a front facing cannonsaid something about needing more room to build it.
Ill go see if she needs anything. I flew away from Damien and headed to the other side of the island. I really should be calling it a battleship now since thats what it was resembling more and more. I found Ilore working near the front. Damien said youre working on a stasis weapon.
That is a crude explanation of what this cannon will do, Ilore sniffed in derision.
Either way, you need any help?
I could use an extra hand, she agreed. This is quite the complex weapon. If you can focus on smoothing the mana lines, that would be greatly useful.
I can do that. I smiled and got to work.
It took longer than expected to turn the island into a flying battleship, but after several weeks of work, we accomplished it. I of course couldnt spend my whole time in the mindscape. I was coming and going as the construction process proceeded.
The final result was quite the impressive ship, the island had been completely transformed. The bottom bristled with magical weapons, and the top looked like a flying fortress, complete with walls with turrets mounted on them. We cut the chain away connecting the battleship to the main island to practice using the engines to keep in place, and now the ship gently circled the large main island propelled under its own power.
We were in the process of ferrying crew up; it wasnt a large space, but held a surprising number of people. The presence of the denizens aboard provided multiple things, but most important was a source of magical power. They would also be the ones manning the weapons. Putting in artificial intelligence to fire the weapons was far beyond our abilities.
I carried a pair of denizens up to the battleship and set them down. Instead of heading back to get another pair, I moved to the highest part of the battleship and looked around.
What my mindscape looked like now still amazed me. The floating islands were truly spectacular in their own right.
In the distance, something caught my attention. An island Id been wondering where it had gone just became visible, and the gap was closing quickly. It was arguably one the most important things the mindscape contained outside the library.
Damien! I called down, pointing to the island. I think I found her first target.
Damien followed my gesture. I think youre right. It would be good to have that back under our control.
Once we finish loading the crew we should head out. I had plenty of time to spend in the mindscapecertainly more than enough to conquer that distant island.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel